Racism cannot be dismissed in Trayvon case

There’s a growing number of people today who are taking up the challenge of proving the opposite of what has already been plainly proven. They seem to lie in wait for news of a racist attack, just so they can broadcast their suggestion that it isn’t a race issue. These people sadly know they’re in the wrong, but could care less; the goal for them is of a more racially selfish nature. If left up only to the Sanford police, the Trayvon Martin shooting wouldn’t even be public knowledge. Credit black media and the internet for exposing the efforts of the Sanford Police Department’s racist cover-up of suburban commando George Zimmerman.

I mean, how is it “not about race” when the dispatcher asks “what was he wearing?” and Zimmerman’s answer was “He looks Black.” Really?

To Zimmerman, he was wearing black skin, which in his mind was illegal and reason enough to call the police. Since racism is devoid of logic, it didn’t matter to him that he knows there are other blacks living in that community. Zimmerman went to a lot of trouble and work to prove it’s about race, so let’s not re-interpret his efforts just because it’s your race that’s in the hot-seat.

As an African American with 54 years of experience in this country, I do not need and never have needed anyone, white or black, to tell me what constitutes a race or racist incident. But apparently some of you will try your hand with this anyway. Fine. When I write an article, you are fully within your rights, and are in fact invited, to disagree with me. But you cannot regulate me or my readers.

Geraldo (Jerry Rivers) says blame the hoodie. Sean Hannity claims it could have been an accident. Glenn Beck says Trayvon was a threat. Newt Gingrich implies that Barack’s speculative son is dividing the country (because Barack said he would look like him).

This is what I’ve been noticing on pages and posts recently. I’m also wise to those of you who are trying to be slick with it; in my recent column about the sub-human George Zimmerman, a woman made a statement claiming to support Trayvon but made it sound like her support was conditional by stating she doesn’t want people to view it as a race thing. She says, “it’s not a color or race thing, it is a human rights thing.” This will come as a shock to some, but it can be both a color issue and a human rights issue, as it has been in many cases.

This woman is one of those types of whites who creates false delusional scenarios implying that it could have been her white son in a hood that Zimmerman was stalking. Guess I missed the wave of headlines about police shooting white male youths in hoodies. Enlighten me please!

If you have to tell people it’s not about race, then it’s probably about race. We’re all adults here, give us the benefit of the doubt. Some of the dumbest, stupidest, most obtuse thinking is happening in the aftermath of an obvious racial tragedy. It’s becoming too common and it smacks of selfish people who want to divert dialogue away from black-specific issues and onto a more generalized way of interpreting the incident in order to make white would-be supporters feel more comfortable.

There are blacks who push this kind of agenda, too. They instantly go from being ghetto to hippy when they are called upon to join some black movement because they fear offending their white best-friend, work-mate, lover, next-door neighbor, etc. Suddenly you’ll notice them talk about love, peace, forgiveness. Most of them don’t believe in those things at all, they just worry that they’ll become useful on the merits of their own skin color to only their own people. Where’s the thrill in that?Whites who engage in this Race Dialogue Police (RDP) nonsense are not going to change the way they look at Blacks. They may be accepting us in the NBA, sitcoms and relationships with the opposite sex, but these have done nothing but lull us to sleep. When it comes to fear of their personal safety, all those other things like March Madness become anti-black madness and their selfish relationships get tossed-out the window.

You will notice these race discussion regulators have one glaring weakness: they have no record of confronting or correcting racists, or hard-bitten bigots. They are the only thing that’s worse than the so-called “good people” who stand by and do nothing. The point I’m trying to make is that many of them are racist themselves. When they look at situations like the Trayvon shooting and listen to the 911 voice of Zimmerman, coupled with the final result, and the far worse treatment of the Sanford police in the handling and attempted cover-up, they see themselves and the commonality in how they probably would have handled it. They understand. Social networks are doing a good job of smoking out racists in some of the simplest situations.

More information is coming out all the time regarding the comparatively uneducated nature of right wing White America. Only Blacks can change this conversation, and the New Black Panther Party are the only ones offering a different solution than those that no longer work. The same people who criticize the NBPP for posting wanted posters and conducting their own independent search for Zimmerman know little or nothing about a group of rich white panthers calling themselves ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) that pushed an adjustable model of the Castle doctrine, i.e. “Stand Your Ground,” across the country, and 16 states have adopted their own version of this measure. Members of ALEC include representatives of ExxonMobil, Johnson & Johnson, Wal-mart, the NRA, and the Koch brothers. In my opinion this is a law that took blacks completely by surprise until it pulled the trigger on a 17-year-old and inspired inaction on the part of Sanford law enforcement.Race could be the only factor in a homicide, or there may be other elements added to it. In this case the more information that is leaked, the more racist it looks. The RDP took on quite a challenge when they decided to whitewash the Trayvon incident in the first place. This episode has racism from different classes of whites; a poor, burned-out white male loser (Zimmerman), a corrupt obstructionist police chief (Bill Lee), a retired high-powered judge no-doubt calling in a whole slew of favors on the night of February 26-27 and writing a letter that attempts to declare his son as the victim, to the daily paper (Zimmerman’s father).

Even though that redneck gun law is the going excuse from Lee, Seminole County State Attorney Norman Wolfinger and City Manager Norton Bonaparte as to why they can’t arrest Zimmerman, I don’t buy it. Activist Dick Gregory recently aired a great idea for some legislation that Blacks need to look into: require police to carry a license to be a cop, which is subject to be taken away by the community if he is proven to have engaged in improper conduct, and institute a national anti-profiling law that holds cops accountable if they step out of line.

Recently there have been reports of Trayvon’s girlfriend being admitted to the hospital due to shortness of breath and fear of police harassment due to her cooperating with investigators. We keep dying, they keep living. We keep going to the hospital, they keep staying healthy. We keep going to funerals, they keep hiding out. Non-violence, in the long run, didn’t change a thing about too many white people. Either we’ve got to push Gregory’s ideas into law (Obama of course wrote and signed an anti-profiling law years ago as a senator), or we have got to start reversing some of these conditions ourselves.

1.5 / 5 (15 Votes)

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Reader Response

Midget
May 10th, 2012

OH BOY IM SO SICK OF THESE INDENIAL PEOPLE. The whole thing had to do with Race. George Zimmerman (not your average latino name) profiled Martin for walking in his neighboorhood and called the police. That itself was RACIST AS HELL. WHY ARE YOU CALLING THE LAW WHEN YOU SEE NO LAW BEING BROKEN? Why cuz you see a black (lets say for your sake) waking and looking in amazement at houses he might of never saw while wearing a hoodie and talking to his Bonnie on the cell phone. I bet that sounds like a horror movie to yall. Spare me with statistics done by a racist agency thats been destroyed black uplifting movements. The only way you know of so called black on white and black on black crime is because they were apprehended that night or they are warranted. Most have way higher bonds or no bonds at all. Most for less heinous crimes then THE MURDER OF AN UNARMED TEEN (Mind you Tm wasn't 17 for whole month before his death). What about the beautiful black woman in Jacksonville Florida in jail for shooting a warning shot while getting assaulted by her husband? Something zimmerman didn't have enough sense to do. Why is she being prosecuted? Angela Cory has proven her racist ways buy Not charging zimmerman with 1st degree murder. A capital offense. And by prosecuting the black woman in jacksonville. Now she made it easy for George to win.good article .

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Reader Response

Chris Stevenson
April 19th, 2012

@John you may be right. In your version of that recording that is the actual sequence. Now I must have been listening to an edited or (or doctored) version of that, because from what I heard that is EXACTLY the way the conversation went. @Luis, thousands upon thousands of black on white crimes? Really???!!! If it were that bad, believe me it would be more than common knowledge, there would be Marshall Law. While I completely sympathize with Christian and Christopher, without even you saying so I would bet my life that they were not apprehended by their local police, and then let go because all five said Channon and Newsom looked suspicious. I feel quite secure in assuming it didn't take a month and a half to get them arrested and indicted. And I'll bet TN is one of those states that has a Castle Doctrine too don't they?

The only reason it isn't known like we know the Trayvon case is because, after law enforcement learned what they did, the police dept. Sheriff's Dept., National Guard, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, FBI, CIA, NSA, KGB, JDL, ADL, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Camp-Fire Girls, (can't think of any more) all surrounded those boys in less than 30-seconds. Unlike George, none of those boys had a father with enough clout to make phone calls and arrangements with the State Attorney, Sheriff, Chief of Police, City Manager, in fact most of them don't even have a father, otherwise this would never have been a story. Unlike George there was no outcry from the victim's family that made national news because... there didn't have to be. They got the suspects quickly, no need for an Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Glenn Beck, Pat Buchanon, or white nationalist group offering a reward of $10,000 for the capture of the killers of Channon and Newson dead or alive. When police do their jobs like they are supposed to-as opposed to getting funny like they did Trayvon-there is no room for all this publicity and outrage. That's why that is.

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Reader Response

John
April 18th, 2012

you have definitely been misinformed. Let me guess, you received your news from NBC? try doing a Google search on Zimmerman 911 transcript. You're no better than NBC with the false information you are spreading!

911 dispatcher:

OK, is he White, Black, or Hispanic?

Zimmerman:

He looks black.

911 dispatcher:

Did you see what he was wearing?

Zimmerman:

Yeah, a dark hoodie like a gray hoodie. He wore jeans or sweat pants and white tennis shoes. He’s here now … he’s just staring. [00:42]

I mean, how is it “not about race” when the dispatcher asks “what was he wearing?” and Zimmerman’s answer was “He looks Black.” Really?

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Reader Response

Louis Calabro
April 18th, 2012

The following comments are simply my opinion about the political use of this tragic happening. Please give it some serious attention, Thank you. Louis Calabro ********************************************************************************************************************************************************
The Trayvon Martin case is just one more example of the African American community creating a distraction from the thousands upon thousands of black on white crimes that are committed each year in America.

Please look at the Christian Channon and Christopher Newsom trial that will be beginning June 6, 2012 in Knoxville, TN.

Five blacks kidnapped Channon and Newsom. They sodomized Newsom, murdered and then burned his body. They raped, tortured Channon and murdered her---and poured bleach all over her to destroy their DNA.

We know, all over America about Trayvon Martin, and maybe we should, but we do ot know about Channon and Newsom. Why is that????